Easter Sunrise Service Tradition Lives On
Despite occasional rain, demonstrations, money problems and even a World War, trumpeters atop a hill overlooking the Hollywood Bowl have heralded the beginning of Easter Sunrise Services at the open-air theater for more than half a century.
In the best tradition of Hollywood, the show has gone on. Sunday will mark the 65th annual Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service.
What began in 1919 as a block party Easter celebration at nearby Whitley Heights, attended by some of the silent film stars who lived in the area, grew into one of the best known and attended outdoor Easter services in Southern California.
Hollywood’s first outdoor Easter program proved such a success that the following year a more spacious place was chosen, at the crest of Olive Hill, in what is now Barnsdall Park. The fledgling Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra performed.
Move to Bowl
By 1921, thousands of worshipers, standing in knee-high grass, attended the first sunrise services at the acoustically perfect, natural amphitheater that later became known as the Hollywood Bowl, according to John Orlando Northcutt in his history of the Bowl.
“As the first faint glint of light pierced the darkness that enveloped the quiet hills in the early dawn, the uplifting strains of the Grail scene from Wagner’s ‘Parsifal’ floated into the atmosphere,” he wrote.
Over the years, the Bowl service has become the most ecumenical (even interfaith, with the appearance of Rabbi Edgar Magnin one year), as well as the most glamorous of sunrise services that have evolved into a widespread Southern California tradition. The services attract tens of thousands of Easter worshipers, bundled up in blankets against the pre-dawn chill, to open-air amphitheaters, mountaintops, beaches and parks to greet Easter. The oldest of the Easter sunrise services in Southern California is the one on Mt. Rubidoux in Riverside, first held in 1909. Some relatively new sunrise services now are rivaling the Hollywood Bowl event for the largest attendance.
Still, the Bowl celebration, true to its heritage, continues to draw Hollywood celebrities to its stage. Also helping to build its national reputation, the event has been telecast for almost a quarter of a century.
Stars Take Part
The list of celebrities who have participated in the event ranges from “America’s Sweetheart,” Mary Pickford, to horror movie great Vincent Price and gangster archetype Edward G. Robinson. It has also included Mickey Rooney, Charlton Heston, Raymond Burr, Agnes Moorehead, and boxer Sugar Ray Robinson.
Hundreds of singers and performers take part in the event each year, as well as prominent clergymen, vocal soloists, choral groups and musical ensembles.
The only interruption in the event’s 65-year history at the Hollywood Bowl occurred in 1926 when, because of construction work at the facility, the service was held at the Hollywood High School athletic field.
World War II threatened to break the event’s continuity. Months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a 1942 newspaper story announced that Easter sunrise services would be omitted that year because of “the emergency.” But later it was decided to go ahead with the show, with 1,000 artists participating, albeit in an empty amphitheater. The event was broadcast nationally.
Hit Zenith in 1948
The event’s popularity appears to have hit its zenith in 1948, when newspaper accounts reported attendance at about 30,000. During the ensuing decade, attendance held at about 20,000 and dropped to the teens during the 1960s and 1970s. In recent years, attendance has dwindled, dropping to as low as 7,000 in 1981, when intermittent rain made it the soggiest Easter in memory in Southern California and kept down attendance at many outdoor observances.
The 1962 event, as a reflection of the times, was marked by a small band of college students who, according to a newspaper account, “gathered at midnight and paraded until sunup, bearing placards reading ‘Ban the Bomb’ . . . ‘Support the U.N.’ ”
A few years later, a neon-lighted cross raised just across the freeway from the Bowl in Cahuenga Pass, which had “long served as a beacon for the Bowl services,” burst into flame early Easter morning, a Los Angeles Times account said.
But “the mysterious explosion and fire,” it continued, “did not spoil the joyful spirit of the 17,000 assembled at the Hollywood Bowl” for the 45th annual sunrise services.
The following year, in 1968, the American Civil Liberties Union sought a court order to halt the sunrise services when a Hollywood minister, recently returned from a trip to Cuba, was dropped from the program after he said that the United States should trade with Fidel Castro’s government for “humanitarian reasons.”
Committee Rebuked
Although the ACLU’s request was denied, the controversy brought sharp rebukes from various church associations that protested the sunrise service committee’s action as interference with religious freedom.
The Hollywood Bowl Easter celebration appeared to steer clear of controversy during the following decade.
In 1978, however, the event was again threatened with cancellation. This time the problem was financial.
The event has traditionally been funded by a collection at the service and other donations, as well as the sale of printed programs, said Bud Herrmann, president for the last 10 years of the Hollywood Bowl Easter Sunrise Service Committee, which plans and coordinates the service.
“We start from scratch each year,” Herrmann said, explaining that donations received each year barely cover costs of the event. Although the program is entirely staffed by volunteers and no fees are paid to participants, the committee must raise funds to pay for leasing the facility and other preparations for the event. There is no admission price and parking is provided free to the public. The cost of putting on the event last year was nearly $30,000, Herrmann said.
Deficit a Problem
The committee was caught short in 1978 when it was left with a deficit from the previous year’s service. The Los Angeles Philharmonic Assn., which has a long-term lease on the Los Angeles County-owned bowl, asked the committee for a larger deposit than usual because of the outstanding bill.
Publicity about the financially beleaguered event resulted in increased donations. The Philharmonic association agreed to lower the deposit and the 58th annual sunrise service was held after all.
Despite the obvious headaches, Herrmann and a core group of long-standing volunteers that make up the service committee, have a commitment to ensuring that the event continue.
“If you want the benefits (of your community), you have to be prepared to give something in return,” said Herrmann, who grew up in Hollywood and recalls attending the sunrise services as a child. After a musical career that took him on the road for about 11 years, playing with Benny Goodman and other bands, Herrmann settled in Los Angeles.
“I wound up on Beachwood (Drive), having a daughter and trying to be a good citizen,” said Herrmann, who has played piano at the Hotel Bel-Air, as director of entertainment, for the past 20 years.
A Family Tradition
Like others in the sunrise service volunteer group, Herrmann contends that he did not seek involvement in the event, rather “it found me.” And, as with the more than 100 volunteers who take part in the event each year, it quickly became a family tradition.
Herrmann and his wife became involved in the sunrise service 22 years ago when their 5-year-old daughter, Trina, joined the Youth Chorus that each year takes part in one of the event’s traditional highlights. About 150 children, attired in black, sit in a massive cross formation and on cue drop their outer robes to reveal a snow-white “Living Cross.”
Herrmann’s daughter, now 27, heads the Easter Sunrise Brass Choir, a 10-member group of trumpeters that, as others have done before them, will mark the traditional opening of the ceremony with a trumpet call at 5 a.m.
For many of the volunteers, Easter is the one time of the year that they stay up all night. And for each there is a special satisfaction in taking part.
Volunteer for 35 Years
William Phillips, who will celebrate his 35th year as a volunteer this Easter, put it this way: “It’s been cold some mornings, but as the sun rises, the trumpets blow and it’s good to see the smiles on people’s faces as the service begins.”
About 350 performers will participate in this year’s program, including the Rev. Jack Hayford, pastor of the Church on the Way, in Van Nuys, actor Ted Knight and actress Jo Ann Pflug, Herrmann said.
The musical portion of the program will include performances by the Soldiers’ Chorus of the U.S. Army Field Band from Washington, D.C., and the Glendale Symphony Youth Orchestra.
Nona Yates of the Times Editorial Library assisted with research for this article.